Inspired By Inspirations Around Me

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I know it ain’t right, but I enjoy finishing my tasks in the nick of the moment, just like this blog post. It does give me a kind of rush.

Day 8 – 25th May 2017

It seemed to have rained the last night also. The place was damp and much colder when I woke up. In spite of sleeping bag and blanket, I felt my body struggling to cope up with the cold temperature out there. Though I got up early, I didn’t dare to step outside our tent until the sun showed up. Some hot tea and Chole Bhature made things better for me. It wasn’t only us from YHAI who were camping there, there was also a camp by another organizer nearby. Why I am mentioning this is, while I was returning to my tent after my breakfast, I saw folks from both the camps happily dancing the Garba (a traditional Gujarati dance) outside our tent. It was fun watching them go round and round dancing those simple yet elegant steps in total sync. Then we cleaned out tents, packed our bags and started to the highest camp of this trek.

The dawn breaks

It’s still cold out there

Chole Bhature

With no doubt, it was the steepest route uphill on this trek. Though the altitude change was only 1300 ft compared to 1900 ft and 1600 ft in the last two days, we had to gain it in the short distance of just 5km. That was definitely a challenge. After a slow and steady climb, we reached our lunch point. Unlike the other lunch points, this one was tucked in between a crack on the mountain. The only common factor was a tiny shop that sold Maggi and Biscuits. Seems Maggi is inevitable in the mountains. Totally, the most frightening lunch point on the whole trek. We were even able to view our Mingtatch camp and the other trekking groups from there. Our guide pointed to a flag, not so far away and told that’s our next camp. With a clear target, we marched towards it. In not more than an hour, we reached the highest camp of this trek, The Nagaru Camp (12,500 ft).

View from lunch point

The other group – View from the lunch point

Maggi, the inevitable

The flag of Nagaru

Once reaching the camp, everyone began calling their parents and their loved ones as they had the cellular reception in one particular spot. But, yours truly was quite stubborn not to use my mobile until the trip gets over. We were served Guava juice as the welcome drink and served tea and fried peanuts later. As we reached quite earlier, we whiled away the time singing and chit chatting. While I was in my tent, I heard some splashing sound. Initially thought it was raining. But to my surprise when I opened my tent flaps, I witnessed the first hailstorm of my life. It’s not just that, we were lucky enough to witness a double rainbow too. Wow, what a mesmerizing view it was. Yet another goosebumps-inducing experience of this trip. We slept early by 7 pm post our early dinner by 6 pm cos we must rise as early as 2 am the next day for one of the most exciting parts of the trek. That’s how an yet another awesome day came to an end.

Camp Nagaru

Friend groundnuts

Tea, Hot Tea.

Tea With Sharon

The double rainbow

Day 9 – 26th May 2017

Waking up at 2 am is absolutely fine, but how about having your least favorite Rava Upma for breakfast at 3 am. My taste buds might have instantaneously rejected it, but my survival instinct thought the other way. The snow melts when the sun starts to shine and that would make the trek extremely difficult. So, we had quite an early start around 3.30 AM that day. Initially, it was too dark and most of us had torchlight or headlamp for the rescue. I was fascinated by the scene when the dawn broke. We were surrounded by snow and for me, the first snow of my life. It was my dream forever to see, touch and feel the snow. My excitement level was high and was overjoyed to realize my dream. That was one memory that will be etched in my memory forever.

The 2am Upma

Dark trek

The breaking of dawn

The gang

After more than a couple of hours of trek, we reached the summit of the trek, the highest point of the Sar Pass (13,799 ft). With all the sides covered with snow, we took a lot of pictures. The joy of reaching the summit is beyond description and you feel just being on the top of the world. I would say, that joy is worth going through all the pain.

Feel of being on the top of the world

Glasses Not mine

The joy

The only flag that I salute

The Sar Pass is the route that connects the summit of Tila Lotni and Biskeri Ridge. So, we had a lot more to cover to reach our next camp Biskeri, predominantly on the snow. The snowy ice surface was very slippery and the poles helped extensively. In the middle, we halted at a shop that sold tea and Maggi for some rest. To the contrary, being surrounded by the snow, we were all totally restless and started playing with it. Either be it throwing snowballs at each other or making snow angels, I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. It was all fun, fun and fun. That place also had a small lake and the view of the sky reflecting on it was priceless.

The snowy and the slippery

These mountains got snow blankets

Snow Angel

Reflection

The terrain

After an hour from there, we reached the edge of the Sar Pass. Here comes the best part of the whole trek, an 800 Mts free slide down the snow. I was anxious when I saw my friends sliding down. It even worsened when my buddy rolled down instead of sliding. Then came my turn and I felt the adrenaline rush. Wow, what an experience sliding down the snow and the cold wind caress the skin. We were too tired by then and somehow pushed ourselves to reach the lunch point a kilometer ahead. We could see the snow around slowly being replaced by rocks and grasses.

Out of hunger, I munched the packed lunch and took a brief rest at the lunch point. My legs were sore and the rest was highly relieving. I also met a few porter women. In spite of carrying heavy backpacks of the trekkers, anywhere between 20 – 30 kgs per person, they had their warm smile intact. So much respect to them.

Finally, the lunch point

So much respect – The porter woman

From there, within an hour we reached our next camp, Beskari (11,000 ft). It felt like an accomplishment completing the most grueling and demanding day of the trek. To give a snapshot, it was a total of 14 km and an elevation change of 1,300 ft uphill and 2,800 ft downhill. That’s quite a lot for a single day. We were served hot tea and Pakodas for the evening snacks as soon as we entered the camp. The rest of the time was spent on playing UNO. Then, as usual, sleep followed the dinner. I dozed of badly wanting the next day to begin, one of the significant days for me in the year. That’s how a yet another awesome day came to an end.

Yaay, One more blog post for this month. That must be quite surprising for the ones who are following my blog regularly and my friends whom I torture to read my posts. It’s Just with an intent of blogging more frequently in the future. I badly wanted to publish this blog post before this year ends as I consider this as one of my greatest accomplishments of this year. After reading this post, you might think it’s kinda bragging or think why should someone write a post for such a trivial thing as this. But, for me, it’s a long dream come true.

There is a small backing story behind this enthusiasm. So, it’s flashback time.

Mosquito coil rotating …
My early college days…

Mom: I don’t want you to go night out with your college friends.Me: Why? You never objected to night outs with my school friends.Mom: I know few of your college friends drink.Me: So what, I don’t.Mom: I’m just worried that you would also start drinking irresponsibly like them.Me: I promise, I definitely won’t drink now ma. But, I can’t promise that I would never drink forever.Mom: No, you are not supposed to drink forever like your dad. It’s an addictive bad habit.Me: I will drink when I get settled and when my dream come true.Mom: Dream, really? What’s that?Me: We should have our own home, sofa and LCD TV. I want to drink canned Beer sitting on the sofa and watching the TV.Mom: You are seriously crazy. Let’s see.

Those were the times we used to live in a tiny rented house in Thiruvottiyur. Now, I have no idea why such scene became my dream. Maybe the influence of watching English movies and series. My grandpa died cos of excessive drinking and smoking. My dad is still a teetotaler, in spite of having an alcoholic, abusive father and growing up in a rough neighborhood. The lives of above two men made me much determined against drinking and smoking. I always wanted to be like my dad. But, I do indulge in Breezer and Wine once in a blue moon. So this post is no more about alcohol or the beer as mentioned in the title.

Fast forward, I completed my college, got a job, even bought an own home and sofa. The only piece that was missing in realizing my dream was that LCD TV. There were many times I bought in the bill of buying a new TV to my home council and my mom vetoed it all. She clearly did it with a fear that I would drink Beer as challenged. It’s not just my mom who was against it, guess who colluded along with her?, my old LG TV. But I can’t blame it for being in proper working condition for the past 19 years. Consequently, my mom used it as a solid reason against buying a new one. As they say, perseverance is the key to success. After years of lobbying the home council on the benefits of a new TV, I eventually got the budget approved to get one. That’s how things are done at my home, nothing is bought without everyone’s consensus.

Our 19-year-old LG TV

A month went on researching, comparing TVs and awaiting the best deal. Finally, the day before the Christmas, I got my new Sony LED TV delivered home. It’s a mere TV for many, even my parents weren’t excited about it. But, for me, it’s a 10-year-old dream becoming a reality. For the sake of a closure, one day I will definitely have a Beer sitting on the sofa watching that TV. But, for now, I will enjoy the Breezer that my office friend bought from his Goa trip. Nothing gives the kick of fulfilling one’s dreams with his own hard earned money, not even the alcohol.

As you guessed, it’s my monthly target that pushed me to write this blog post. But, I love to write about my travel. I just love to revisit those beautiful memories and feel nostalgic about the same.

Day 6 – 23rd May 2017

As usual, I woke up early that day. As it was still dark outside, I spent time listening to music inside the tent until the sun showed up in the east. To my surprise, no one except the kitchen staff was awake and they served me some hot tea. Then, I found myself a spot and got lost in the music and the serene nature. Slowly my trek mates started coming out of their tents and the kitchen staff served delicious Poha along with some hot tea. We didn’t just stop with the Poha, a couple of rounds of MoMos went on too, courtesy Mrs. Tarkur (I call her The MoMo Aunty). It wasn’t just the hot MoMos that added warmth, the burning woods inside her shop made the cold morning much pleasant.

Kitchen staffs in action

Lost into music

Lovely Kids

Much needed for a cold morning

Mrs. Tharkur preparing MoMos for us

How Beautiful

It’s Poha for the breakfast

A little later, we packed our lunch and was all ready to leave the camp. Our camp leader gave us 2 choices. One, an easy route and nothing much exciting on the way. Next, a relatively tough route with a waterfall along. Can’t expect anything less from our energetic group, we unanimously voted for the tough one. The best part was, our camp leader Mr. Bharath even agreed to accompany us to the waterfall. It was a bit steep route with a couple of small streams on the way. Walking further we stumbled upon a small waterfall and started clicking pics assuming that it was the one that our camp leader mentioned about. Then we realized, it was just the trailer and the main picture yet to come. I was simply awestruck by the view when we reached the waterfall. The sheer force of water and the sun rays escaping through the dense trees made the place look magical. The feel of cold water droplets splashing on my face is indescribable, even just thinking about would give me goosebumps. We spent some time there enjoying the nature and clicking some pics. As our camp leader headed to Grahan getting farewell from us, we continued trekking to our higher camp.

Droplets ❤

The path is never easy

The little waterfall

This place is magical

Joy Max

Smile says it all

With Bharath, Our camp leader

The route was a bit steeper than I imagined, but the energy in the group kept us going. As usual, I enjoyed trekking in my own phase. Out of nowhere came our lunch point, a tiny shop where we ordered some hot Maggi and had it along with Chapatti and Potato Curry, the ones we picked from the camp. We resumed after our lunch followed by some rest. From the lunch point, it didn’t take us much time to reach our next higher camp Padri (9300 ft), actually quite earlier than expected. Cant expect anything less from our young and energetic group.

Maggi being made

Yummy….

Camp Padri

Padri is like a valley cleared for cattle grazing. One can see mountains with snowy peaks surrounding it. Cattles passed by the camp all the time, can’t blame them, after all, it’s their place we were occupying. We had a lot of time to relax that day with most of my time spent in the company of music lost in thoughts. Soup, tea and dinner were served in the meantime. Post dinner something really interesting happened. As a tradition, signals were exchanged between our camp and yet another higher camp Nagaru using torchlight. All we could see was a tiny spark of light flickering in a pattern far away from the mountains. Nagaru is the highest camp in this trek and it would take us another couple of days to reach there. In my case, sleep comes out once the food goes in and it was cold to stay out. On the contrary, my tent mates were wide awake with playing both Uno and music. So, I switched to another tent full of similar sleepy souls and dozed off to glory. That’s how yet another awesome day on the trek came to an end.

Snow covered mountains

Cattle grounds

UNO Night

One of my fav pics, Kalyan Ji.

Day 7 – 24th May 2017

The day started witnessing one of the best sunrises ever. The view of Sun rising over the mountains from the camp was stunning and the lighting was perfect to click some photos and selfies. To our surprise, they served Penne Pasta for breakfast along with some hot tea. We resumed our trek after bidding our farewell to the camp leader.

Sunrise over the mountains

Mountains, Breeze and Flare, What else I could ask for. #SmileIsAllWhatIHaveGot

The glasses aren’t mine

Penne Pasta for the Nastha

This one lovely view ❤

The route was initially steep downhill. With a bit of rain last night, it was damp and slippery. We had to carefully watch each of steps, luckily the Bamboo stick (pole) that I carried along came in handy. We came across a stream, think I can call it a small waterfall, from there the route elevated steep uphill, crazy mountains I must say. Out of nowhere on the route, we encountered a small tent shop which sold chocolates, chips and packed juices. Though the prices were up to thrice the MRP, it seemed fair to pay considering the location and the fact that we would be their only customers for the day. Energized by the brief rest along with some snacks, we continued our journey. The route was a bit flat until our lunch point, I even saw a tree burnt by lighting and my favorite Rhododendron flowers on the way. The lunch point was the most scenic of all. A perfect place to take a lot of pictures with mountainous background and I didn’t miss it either.

Steep & Slippery

Crossing the stream

Route Markers

A shop from nowhere

Rhododendron flowers

Burnt by lightning

So Relaxed

Panorama from lunch point

It was all fine till then, the route was kinda flat until we reached this spot which I call the great wall of Mingtatch cos it looked like a wall between us and the camp. It was a highly steep zigzag path uphill, so steep that they even had supporting ropes to hold and climb. It was not just the tough path that caused trouble, the most unpredictable mountain weather had also decided to join the party uninvited and It rained all of sudden. We took shelter under the tree covering ourselves with the rain cover and Pancho. Added to the steepness, rain made the path slippery too and that wasn’t fair at all. Just a slip and we would be dead in the valley few thousand foots below us. That was one of the scariest parts of the trek for me. Somehow we safely managed to reach Mingtatch (11200 ft), our next higher camp.

Steep climb starts here

Steep wall of Mingtatch

Finally…

Rain clouds out of no where

Within a few minutes, the clouds disappeared, the sun shined back and there wasn’t a trace that it rained. Mysterious mountains, I must say. The hot Tea and Potato Pakodas they served felt heavenly. The dispersion of sun rays through the clouds at the time of sunset was an awesome view to watch. I whiled away clicking pics and playing our favorite UNO. Then, as usual, sleep followed the dinner and yet another awesome day on the trek came to an end.

With stress surrounding my workplace and minor health issues, the past month wasn’t that great for me. All I was wishing was a getaway and energize myself back to normal. So, with no second thoughts, I signed up with Exoticamp to experience camping at Vagamon and geared up for the weekend getaway. I have never been to that part of the God’s own country and that’s yet another factor that kept my excitement on.

As planned, on 10th November night I boarded the bus. It was already filled with a few campers from Chennai, en route to Kumili. I am someone who firmly believes in the quote “No road is long with good company” and I cant ask for a better company other than my blogging friends Brags anna, Raji and Jenny. It’s been a while, so happy to catch up with them on the bus. Being a sleepy head, I momentarily dozed off and woke up by the cold wind escaping through the windows the next morning. By 7 am on 11th nov we reached Kumily a border town between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. As we were indulging Appam and Egg Curry at a hotel quite opposite to the bus stop, campers from other cities like Banglore, Coimbatore and Tanjore also joined us.

The bus selfie

Appam and Egg curry

Kattan Chaya a.k.a Black Tea

Then, we got into Jeeps that would take us to the base camp. Luckily, our Jeep had an awesome music system and our DJ, Raji played awesome tracks that kept me excited all the way. We stopped by a stream on the way. As it wasn’t deep, I took the pleasure of dipping my feet into the flowing cold water and it felt refreshing. The rest of the drive went on a heavenly combination of music and the vast green landscape filled with tea plantations. BY the noon, we reached our base camp.

Not our Jeep

Coolest rearview mirror ever

Jeep Mirror Selfie

Jeep selfie

That small stream

It feels sooo good …

Rain Drops ❤

The camp had 2 non-negotiable rules in order to ensure the safety of everyone, strictly no smoking and drinking. Other than that, you are free to do anything and everything that neither affects the fellow campers, not the environment. It was a small private cottage with a couple of restrooms to get change and refreshed. Now to the exciting part, the base camp also had a small private waterfall. Playing and taking bath in its cold water for more than hour made my stomach growl in hunger. There is nothing like good food served when you are really hungry and their yummy Kerala style meals along with fish curry gave me a sense of satisfaction. I had a nice time talking to the fellow campers and get to know them, my favourite part of any travel. It was an awesome diverse group and it would be bad on my part if I fail to mention about the super cool organizer Sukanya a.k.a Suzuki. The camping place was a kilometre and half from the base camp. Though they offered jeep to take us to the camping area, most of us decided to walk there with our luggage transferred in Jeep.

Private Waterfall | PC: Berin

Fun playing in water

😀 More fun

Yummy Kerala style fish curry for lunch.

A short walk (not many would agree with me) took us to the beautiful camping area where the tents are placed in an order like a straight line. Tea was offered and something hot in the cool climate felt soothing. I have stayed in multiple camps during my treks and I would call this camping setup a luxury one. It even had a proper restroom. A few metres walk from the camp was a beautiful viewpoint. The view of clouds passing the mountains and mist moving in front of us was breathtaking.

A short walk

Love this stretch

Chilling out

Perfect camping spot

Shot at the view point, Fav pic

We returned back to the camp as it was getting dark. Seems the rain was as excited as us about the campfire. A few took shelter in their respective tents and the crazy others under a single tarpaulin sheet which was kept to protect the firewood. Believe me, it was a crazy bunch and yours truly was also one of them. Some modified and sang famous Tamil romantic number “Vaseegara” (i doubt Suzuki only) as “Oru porvaikul pala thukkam” (many slept under one blanket) instead of “Oru porvaikul iru thukam” (two slept under one blanket), others burst into laughter hearing this. It did rain heavily, but not even a drop penetrated the tent. Time was spent on listening music, reading Malice by Keigo Higashino and a short nap until Sam knocked our tent to notify that the rain subsided. Sam prepared his secret noodle soup while the campfire was being set up. We all sat around the fire in circles and the fun time started with an icebreaker intro session followed by some awesome singing by Ipsita, Suteja and Sameena. It was hard to contain my excitement when Suteja sang one of my fav numbers “Rayilae Rayilae Oru Nimisham” from the movie Five Star. After a bit of dancing the gathering got dissipated upon the arrival of food. We were served yummy Chapathi, Veg Fried Rice, Veg Curry and Chicken Curry for the dinner. Post dinner, most of us went into their respective tents and dozed off, but a few brave souls (like myself) slept later after discussing horror stories until midnight and that’s how an awesome day came to an end.

Oru Porvaikul Pala Thukkam

Dark inside the camp, Awaiting for the rain to stop

That secret noodle soup recipe

Noodle soup topped with potato chips

Fried rice and chicken curry

Campfire

Scary campfire selfie

Poople inside that camp were scared 😀

As usual, I woke up early in the morning around 4.30 am. It seems it had rained heavily the last night. Brags Anna and Sammena were also awake at that point in time, so we decided to take a walk to the base camp and back. The scene of dawn breaking over the mountains have always been a magical scene. With morning tea served, we took a walk to the viewpoint again. We had so much fun shooting a mannequin challenge video there.

Shot inside the tent

The view outside ❤

Shot on the way

The organizers never failed to give us the local flavour. Loved the Appam and Puttu with Egg Curry and Veg Stew that was served for breakfast. We relaxed a while and walked back to our base camp leaving our luggage be transferred by Jeep. Just like the last day, we had lots of fun in the waterfall again. I even learned a few steps from Suzuki that eventually increased my total dance steps know to 4. With a heavy heart, we bid farewell to the base camp and headed to Vagamon Medows, a famous tourist attraction in that area.

Appam, Puttu and Egg Curry for breakfast

Returning to base camp

Rain water filled the mushroom

Waterfall – One more time 😀

Suzuki’s camp magi

That’s our lunch

2nd round

Selfie with the sweet pie.

As it was a Sunday, it was quite crowded too. I enjoyed running down the slopes (refer Brags anna video) and we took the iconic squad goals pic :P. The Maggi we had for lunch wasn’t enough and the gap was filled with snacks from a shop opposite to the meadows. With things done and dusted, we headed straight to Kumili to catch our bus back to Chennai. As before, the music was loud on our Jeep. It somehow reminded me of “Senthazham Poovil” song from the movie Mullum Malarum.

Before boarding the bus, we stopped by a local spice store where I bought some Black Pepper and Cardamom as instructed by my mom. The sleeper bus stopped at a highway hotel for dinner. That one awesome trip came to an end when I woke up to the Chennai rains the next morning. It’s definitely a trip to remember.

Plantain Chips In Making – Kumily

Below are the two videos made by Brags anna and Raji, Watch and Enjoy.

The Exoticamp team not only demonstrated professionalism and passion in organizing the camp but also added the fun flavour which made the camping more enjoyable. After having such an awesome experience, I am looking forward checking their other interesting campsites such as Munnar Tea Estate Camping, Marakanam Beach Camping, Mango Camping and Vineyard Camping. I also like their vision of empowering locals via their camping projects. I sign off wishing the young and energetic team all the very best.

I have set myself an uncompromising self-target of a minimum of one blog post a month and it took the last day of the month to break my month long blogging hibernation.

Day 5 – 22nd May 2017

Finally, arrived the D-Day and I woke up bubbling with excitement. If you are wondering why? you must read the last post in this series. The routine at the camp was a bit different that day. Phew, luckily no exercise session. Once done with our breakfast, we cleaned our tents, submitted our blankets, packed our lunch and we were all set for the trek to start. Around 8 AM, the trek was flagged off by the camp leader and the rest of the batches at the camp formed two parallel lines on our either side and ceremoniously clapped and cheered us as we left the base camp (5183 ft). The energy at that point of time was insane.

As expected the route was rocky and steep. As a result of our over-enthusiasm, a group of us went ahead of our guide in a wrong path and ended up in a dead end. Luckily, we didn’t deviate much and rejoined the rest without any fuss. It was an apt weather with little sunshine and cool damp air. One thing I enjoyed the most was crossing a couple of wooden bridges built over streams flowing down the mountains. These things make me adore the endless beauty of nature. After taking rest in a couple of rest points along the way, we reached our lunch point R.S Cafe by 11 AM.

Finally, my curiosity got resolved after seeing lots of signboards on the way about this place. It was an open meadow with a couple of tents, one the kitchen and another for the guests to relax. We sat outside in the open area and had our lunch, Roti with some pickles and Ladies Finger (Okra). By 12 pm we were done with our lunch and started trekking towards our first higher camp. The weather on the mountain is quite unpredictable, the sun was shining and a couple of minutes later, the clouds came in and it started raining heavily. Being prepared with rain jacket and poncho saved me and my backpack from getting drenched in rain. Luckily, there was a tiny shop selling tea and Maggi, so we took shelter in it until the rain subsided.

After a wet and slippery trek, we reached Grahan (7700 ft) village by 2.20 PM. The camp was a bit away from the heart of the village and It was a great experience walking through the village. It had a few one-storied houses made stone and wood. We also came across a big temple beautifully carved out of the wood. Phew, I was hit by a sense of achievement reaching the first higher camp when the sign read “Welcome to Camp Grahan”. We were allotted tents and was served the welcome drink. Then, our camp leader Mr. Bharath called us out for the headcount check and gave detailed disciplinary instructions. He is one of the coolest camp leaders I came across on the trek. Though he was from Hyderabad, he spoke Tamil fluently as he studied and worked in Chennai for a while.

There was this small shop just at the entrance of the camp owned by Mrs. Tarkur and she made yummy hot momos which we all devoured. She also had a fire going inside her shop and she is so kind to invite me in to get warm. She was the most educated women in the village and she could speak English fluently. After the evening soup was served, I spent some time chitchatting and playing UNO. After our dinner, we entertained ourselves by singing songs, both Tamil and Hindi. That’s how an yet another awesome day came to an end.

If you are a frequent follower of my blog and expecting a continuation of my Sarparss Trek series, I am really sorry, just gonna deviate a bit this time.

Recently, my Facebook feed was filled with white color speech balloons on a blue background and some text in it. Sincere thanks to Sarahah. There were so many of it, even I got tempted to try it out (https://gokoulane.sarahah.com/). If you are an atypical one who has no clue what Sarahah is? the following is for you.

Sarahah means honesty in the Arabic Language. Sarahah is an app through which people can send or receive honest feedback from others ANONYMOUSLY.

I did receive a handful of messages. Unlike my FB friends, I decided to respond to those messages here instead of spamming the walls of others. No offense guys, it was all over my wall (orey sara sarra Sarahah kathu only) and even pushed me to the verge of deactivating my account for a while. I should have responded to those awesome messages a long back, but as always, better late than never.

Before sharing the anonymous messages I received via Sarahah, I would like to share a funny incident. One of my close friends share his Sarahah link on his wall, so I wrote what I really thought of him. When I logged in into FB the next day, I saw him sharing it on his wall with a caption “Thank you very much Girl”. When one of his friends commented “How come you are sure that it’s a girl?”, he replied, “Have you ever seen guys messaging in such a nice way?”. It was one big face palm moment for me. Seems my cover is blown now.

Here come my messages, strictly in chronological order.

Thank you, that’s exactly what I strive for. To smile always, to travel whenever I get a chance and be the same for ever.

Hehe, thank you. Ippo irukura adhey edathula dhan (The same place where I am now). I am happy when people smile cos of me. Such a blessing.

OMG!, that’s too much of awesomeness in your message. Thank you. It’s definitely not an overloaded message. Seems it’s from some one who knows my most favorite word. I am happy.

I exactly know this person as there is only one who addresses me that way. She calls me a patient author as I take a month to write a blog post. I call her a patient reader as she patiently waits to read them. Thank you for all your kind words and motivation.

Quite an interesting question. How about Seafood with Shawarma :D. Don’t want to be greedy, will better stick with my favorite Shawarma.

:D, Prof. That’s a box of Munch. See, I got the feel of Sarahah a long time back, some one writing me anonymously.

Thank you a lot. Will do my best to spread happiness to the people around me.

Quite a confession. You have no idea what’s significant and what’s insignificant for me. I am some one who fights for a piece of Chocolate like a war and totally ignores what’s happening in Big Boss. To be honest, I am a very curious person & I did think too much about finding who you are, but eventually gave up. I know it must have been hard for you to say this directly to me, anyhow, apologies accepted 🙂

A very few people still call me Lane, so I had no difficulty in finding this person. On a serious note, it’s a great honor to get those words from you Docu.

Me? Inspiration? Thank you for those kind words. On a lighter note, I kinda hated maths cos it demanded some problem-solving.

🙂 🙂 🙂 Thank You. I smiled wide when I read this.

This must be a best friend. No words, Thank You.

You should have known this by this time.

I Know Right. Damn, I am such a narcissist :D.

In spite of being an anonymous messaging platform, the fact that people wrote really nice, sweet and motivating messages made me feel really good. Thank you for the same. I shall conttinue to update this post with any other messages I receive via Sarahah.

Finally, surpassed all the procrastination, laziness and mental blocks to write about our trek to Sar Pass (Did you note the word play?).

It was an exciting trip and plenty of stories to be told. But, From where do I start? Just like my last trek, this one is also with Youth Hostel Association of India (YHAI). Being one of the most famous and sought after trek organized by YHAI, we had to plan well in advance, almost before 5 months. Like any other trip, few opted out, a few added in and finally left with Myself, Jayashree (Buddy), Nigilan and Lavanya. Yeah, the same friends from my last trek and many other trips before. It was quite unfortunate that Giri opted at the last moment, it was great fun with him the last trek.

Day 1 – 18th May 2017

As planned Buddy and Myself started from Chennai whereas Nigilan and Lavanya started from Bangalore. Here is something funny that happened at the airport. We were there well ahead of our flight schedule. With a poor consciousness of time, we lazed chit chatting and charging our mobile phones. It was a great shock when we were denied to check-in our luggage as we crossed the 50 minutes to departure check-in window. Phew, Thankfully, our kind apologetic words worked and the ground staff agreed to check-in with a strong warning to be on time. That’s a great lesson learned. We boarded our Indigo6E 26D, despite checking-in together we both were given different seats however the only consolation for that ultimate boredom was a seat by the window. Most time was spent listening to music and reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (Yet to be completed). After a long haul at Hyderabad, we reached Chandigarh around 2 pm.

That’s a lot to carry

All Packed

Happy & Excited me

Chennai Domestic Airport

Art installation inside the Airport

Waiting for me 😀

Headed to Chandigarh

When clouds looks like cotton candy

When bored during long flight

Chandigarh Finally

Nigilan & Lavanya were already waiting for us at the airport and we were joined by Giri’s friends Prasad, Sunil & Sunil’s sister Sharon. More the merrier, the gang count raised to 7. With our bus to Bhuntar scheduled at night, we decided to hire cabs and roam around the city in the mean time. As we were terribly hungry, we decided to finish off our lunch first before doing anything else. The cab driver recommended Pal Dhaba at Sector 28, one of the popular Dhabas in the town. Yes, the food at this place lived up to its reputation without burning hole in the pocket. I loved their Butter Chicken & Mint Chutney and finished the meal with delicious Kulfi sold outside the hotel. Our next stop was the beautiful Sukhna Lake. Despite being a hot summer day, it was quite breezy there. With my friends complimenting my superior photography skills the time moved pleasantly as we walked around the lake. I am in still love with the yellow blossoms there.

Here we come Pal Dhaba

Yummy Mint Chutney

Roti & Butter Chicken

After Meals

Kulfi to finish

Sculpture installation

Lake Promenade

Lovely blossoms

Refreshing Laburnum blossoms

Sukhna lake

I Love this pic

Our next stop was the most famous Rock Garden of Chandigarh. It was secretly built by Nek Chand, a government official out of waste and throw away items. Though it was illegally built in a protected forest area, public opinions were asked and the park was officially inaugurated in 1976 as public space. Isn’t it true when they say “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”? it was really amazing to see how day to day waste items has been transformed into beautiful sculptures. It’s awesome of Nek Chand to make us see and the feel the same beauty he saw in those disposable things. The place was magnificent, even got waterfalls and I really wish we had enough time to roam around.

Nek Chand, the man.

Beautiful Waterfall

Sculptures

Sculptures

Us.

Sculptures

Our next hop was Zakir Hussain Rose Garden or just Rose Garden as dearly called by the locals. Spanning across 30 acres, it’s the largest garden in Asia. It’s a home for 50,000+ rose bushes, as a result of being there at off season, all we could see is rose bloomed in very few bushes and that was quite disappointing. One big mistake we did was to extend the cab. The cab driver didn’t communicate us properly on the extra tariffs, as the result, we end up paying a lot more than we supposed to when we reached Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT). The Sad part is, even my buddy’s conversation with the cab company’s customer care in Hindi didn’t help us. After a light dinner at a restaurant in ISBT, we boarded our bus to Bhuntar and that’s how the first day of our trip came to an end.

Day 2 – 19th May 2017

With bumps and sharp turns, all of sudden I felt like being on a roller coaster. It took some time for me to get into my consciousness and realize that the bus was in the middle of mountains intensely tracing its curves. As everyone is asleep, the whole bus was quiet and I silently enjoyed the dawn slowly breaking over the mountains. Little perks of being an early riser. As soon our bus dropped us at Bunthar, I could feel the cold breeze caress me and my body struggling to adapt to the same. My friends easily vetoed my idea of reaching the base camp by bus, so we hired a cab. On the way, we halted a little for our morning tea. The taste of the tea was completely contrary to the driver’s claim of the best tea in this area. View of the Parvathi river and the Hindi songs on the way make the drive much memorable one.

View of Parvathi river

Mountain Roads ❤

That one best tea 😀 😀

After an hour journey, finally, we reached YHAI base camp at Kasol. It was nothing like our previous base camp at Darjeeling during Sandakphu trek. Once done with our registrations, we were allotted our tents. Yes, you heard it right, we would be staying in tents in base camp as well as all other higher camps to come. After having our breakfast and collecting our blankets, we spent the forenoon resting in our tents. One can’t expect much on a rest day. At any given point of time, this camp houses 4 batches, 1 x reporting batch, 2 x training batch and 1 x departing batch. That’s quite a lot of people. No wonder when they say it’s one of the most famous treks of YHAI. One of the best things Nigilan did during this trip was finding an awesome place for lunch. The Evergreen restaurant served some of the authentic Israelian cuisines in Kasol. I really loved their Chicken Schnitzel and Hummus. We were not allowed to be out of the camp post 6 PM and that’s very little time to finish our late lunch and shop some essentials. After roaming around the street of Kasol, we returned to the camp just on time. Then the dinner was served and a yet another awesome day came to an end with campfire event organized by our previous batch in the camp.

Welcome to the base camp

View from the camp

Healthy breakfast

A view from the top

The Evergreen Restaurant

Falafel

Veg platter

Lasagne

Veg schnitzel

Chicken schnitzel

Beauty ❤

Day 3 – 20th May 2017

Though the day started much earlier for me, for most of them at the camp the wakeup call was the long whistle from the camp leader. We all assembled for a quick count check and jogged to the exercise spot half a kilometer away. An hour was well spent doing stretching and strengthening exercises. The best part is, Sunil and myself would run back to the camp while others would walk exhausted, runners you see. A girl in the camp seemed familiar but couldn’t even recollect her name and was quite hesitant to talk to her. Later, she introduced herself and happened to be my fellow Yatri during Jagiti Yatra. It’s no mere coincidence that I keep meeting Yatri’s during my treks. It was a pleasure meeting you Amrita. The breakfast was followed by tent cleaning activity and the acclimatization walk. We had to carry a minimum of 10 kgs and walk a total of 8 km, almost near Manikaran and back. We took a small break on the banks of Parvathi river, had some juice and rejoiced the beauty of the mountains and the flowing water before returning back to the camp. Post lunch we had our induction session, where the program director gave a brief talk on the trekking route, Do’s & Dont’s. The rain spoiled our sneaking out plan and we spent the rest of the day inside our tents. Like any other awesome day at the base camp, it came to an end with dinner followed by campfire event by our batch. Our guys did put a spectacular show on the stage. Did I tell you that Sharon is an awesome singer? We even some how convinced her to sing that day.

Acclimatization walk

I love this pic

With the gang 🙂

Spectacular view

Induction on the way

One spectacular show

Day 4 – 21st May 2017

The morning routine is pretty much same at the base camp. Just like the last day we had the wakeup call, count check, exercise session, breakfast and tent cleaning. We were then taken to a pine forest for the rock climbing training. The trainers gave us clear instructions and even thought us how to tie a double bowline knot. We had to climb an almost flat vertical surface with a few cracks to hold on. Most of us tried and only a few of us succeeded. Even though we mocked Nigilan a lot, he is the only one in our gang to complete the climb successfully and did it like a piece of cake. While others were trying hard to climb, I relaxed eating cherries and playing cricket with the local kids. They were gracious enough to allow me to bowl an over. Ours was a 50 member batch and the time wasn’t enough for all of us to try, consequently, few of the brave souls like me returned back to the camp without even giving it a try. Post lunch we were supposed to go on Rappelling, but nature had other plans. It rained heavily and Rappelling got canceled. By evening, we packed our bags. Initially, my backpack weighed around 9 kgs. Lighter the better during the trek, eventually, I reduced it to around 6 kgs and deposited the rest with the base camp. When the rain subsided we had some time to go out and munch some cakes at the German Bakery and some hot Momos at the small shop opposite to it. It seemed to be a perfect climate to munch those deliciously hot Momos. By this time you must have known how a day ends at base camp. Unlike rest of the days, one feeling dominated that night, the sheer excitement of climbing mountains the next day.